Kitchen Remodeling in Southeast Michigan

Kitchens Are a Multi Trade Project Wearing a Cabinet Finish

A kitchen remodel is usually described in terms of cabinets, counters and appliances. Underneath, it is demolition, framing, electrical, plumbing, sometimes mechanical, drywall, flooring, cabinetry, tile and finish carpentry, in a specific order, most of it inspected before it gets covered.

That is why kitchens go badly when they are treated as a cabinet purchase with installers attached. A cabinet company can hang cabinets. It cannot tell you whether the wall between the kitchen and the dining room is carrying load, what is running through it, or what happens to the ceiling when it comes out.

Praxis Building Group contracts for the whole kitchen: the visible finish and everything behind it, on one schedule with one company responsible for the result.

Typical Project Scope

Kitchen projects vary widely. A typical kitchen scope includes some combination of the following.

• Demolition and protection of adjacent finished space
• Layout changes, including removing or relocating non structural walls
• Structural work where a bearing wall is being opened, with engineering when required
• Electrical: new circuits for appliances, receptacle spacing to current code, under cabinet and ceiling lighting, switching and dimming
• Plumbing: sink and dishwasher supply and drain, disposal, refrigerator water line, relocation where the layout moves
• Ventilation: hood ducting to the exterior and make up air where required
• Drywall, ceiling repair and painting
• Flooring, including subfloor correction and transitions
• Cabinetry installation, including filler, scribe and crown detailing
• Countertop templating and coordination with the fabricator
• Backsplash tile
• Appliance installation and final connections
• Trim, toe kick, door and window casing, and punch list

Not every project includes every item. Scope is written for your specific house and stated plainly before pricing.

The Praxis Building Group Approach

Layout before selections

Cabinet doors and counter samples are the easy part of the decision. The harder question is whether the layout works: where the sink and range end up relative to each other, how far the refrigerator door swings, whether there is landing space beside the cooktop, and whether the island leaves real clearance. We work that out first, because it determines what the plumbing and electrical have to do.

Appliances get specified early

Appliance dimensions drive cabinet sizes, electrical requirements, gas or electric supply, and hood ducting. A range swapped late can invalidate a cabinet order. We want the appliance list locked before cabinetry is ordered, not after.

Rough in is planned, not improvised

Circuits, switch locations, under cabinet lighting power, disposal switching, and where the hood duct actually runs are decided on paper before the electrician arrives. This is also when it becomes clear whether the existing panel has capacity.

The kitchen stays usable as long as possible

For most households, losing the kitchen is the hardest part of the project. Sequencing can often keep it functional longer, and a temporary setup elsewhere in the house is worth planning rather than improvising on day one.

Construction Considerations

Bearing walls and the open concept question

Opening a kitchen to an adjacent room is the most requested kitchen change and the one most likely to involve structure. If the wall carries load, it needs a properly sized beam, bearing points that continue to the foundation, and usually an engineer's stamp for the permit. That is a solvable problem, but it is not a same day decision and it is not free.

Older homes and electrical capacity

Kitchens in Southeast Michigan homes built before the 1980s frequently have two circuits doing what code now expects six or more to do. Modern kitchen circuit requirements, plus induction ranges and higher draw appliances, often mean panel work is part of the project.

Ventilation that actually vents

Recirculating hoods are common and largely cosmetic. A hood ducted to the exterior is meaningfully better, but it requires a duct path, correct sizing and sometimes make up air. Where that duct runs is a framing question that has to be answered before the ceiling closes.

Floor height and transitions

Removing old flooring often reveals subfloor damage, height differences between rooms, or a floor that is not level enough for a long cabinet run. Cabinets and appliances both care about this. It is cheaper to correct before cabinetry than after.

Planning This Project

The two decisions that most affect a kitchen budget are whether the layout moves and what level of cabinetry is used. A kitchen that keeps its existing plumbing and appliance locations and replaces finishes is a very different project from one that relocates the sink and opens a wall.

Cabinetry lead time is usually the longest item on a kitchen schedule and should be ordered during preconstruction. Countertops cannot be templated until cabinets are installed, which puts a fixed gap late in the project that no amount of scheduling removes.